


How do you solve a problem like Mercy

by Yidenia



Category: Mercy Thompson Series - Patricia Briggs
Genre: F/M, Fae & Fairies, Gray Lords, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 08:48:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16364711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yidenia/pseuds/Yidenia
Summary: Normally they wouldn't go near each other even if their lives depended on it (or in Stefan's case, undeath).Keeping something like a coyote out of the loop, though, is going to take………teamwork.Or: A dangerous being arrives in the Tri-Cities that needs subduing, and everyone tries to keep Mercy away because even if she's good at solving problems, she's not so great with the whole self-preservation thing.





	How do you solve a problem like Mercy

The phone call came from Japan, which was the first thing that told Bran something was not right.

 _"This the Marrok?"_ asked the woman on the other side, speaking in British-English despite her location suggesting she would sound otherwise.

"What do you need the Marrok for?" Bran asked instead of answering her question.

 _"My name is Yue Hua,"_ said the woman.  _"I am calling because I need to speak with you about a subject I suspect is entering the borders of North America as we speak. He is a yaojing, or youkai, and likely to do harm if not handled in a timely manner. My sisters and I are hunting him, but he had escaped us for the time being. We know for certain that he is entering the United States through Seattle, Washington. I am requesting permission to enter your domain, and your help in containing him should the conditions allow."_

Yue Hua was a Chinese name, and one that Bran had come across before, though he was not very familiar with her. the Yue sisters (surname first) composed of four white witches: Yue Hua, the eldest, followed by Yue Ming, Yue Ye, and Yue Shi. Eastern magic was quite different from western magic, and due to their natures, the practitioners tended to veer away from each other, even if they all practiced white magic. Bran had only come across one Eastern white witch in his many years: she was of an ethnicity that had since been absorbed into the Chinese mainland society, but her main strength had been premonition. She could also fight well for a human, and had some control over the elements, but she rarely used them. He heard later that she had died when she was forty, after coming down with an illness she had foretold herself.

There was not much separating a white witch from a black witch; it was more a decision than a trait, though some would argue that true white witches were witches whose temperaments and personalities would never allow them to choose to use black magic. Bran had been alive for long enough to know that such things were never so simple. For all he knew, Yue Hua could be a black witch already—but that, on its own, did not mean she could not still be on a just mission. Bran was not so hypocritical as to judge. Besides, youkai were dangerous. They were not demons; demons were immortal spirits that can possess vessels in the physical realm and unleash evil and chaos in their wake. Yaojing, or youkai, on the other hand, are a special quirk of the East. The magic in the east tends to flow around, unlike in the west. Sometimes it collects in certain areas or in certain things, which allows nonsentient beings gain sentience, or simple animals become intensely self-aware

Like the fae, most such creatures were fairly harmless and weak, but a few can wreck great havoc, particularly if they were very smart and very powerful, but without any morals. Kitsune are a good example; these were foxes that become infused with magic, but still think like foxes, and therefore do not care about the wreckage they bring. Often, they can shapeshift into human shape. Most often, they take the form of a voluptuous woman, even if the foxes themselves were male. They also have other powers, though these varied depending on what magic chose to settle in them.

"We're certainly happy to cooperate with any efforts to maintain order in our society," Bran replied amicably, since it was very courteous of Yue Hua to call in advance; she could have just entered the country and tried to clean up her mess without letting anyone know. Most likely, she would have, but she probably felt some help would be needed. She might be right, considering she and her sisters had trouble keeping this youkai within their hemisphere. "What is the nature of this youkai, and what can he do?"

 _"He was once a pangolin,"_ Yue Hua's tones remained professional, but Bran could tell she was dismayed. Pangolins were endangered enough as it was, from all the poaching. She probably did not like that one of them was lost to this process.  _"Our findings suggest he was around since at least the Tang Dynasty. He was as solitary and peaceful as his original form until about five years ago, when he began eating children. He has a way of calling them to him; only the children hear his song. We don't know why he has started to do this, but he has killed at least thirty children that we know of."_

Some beings, when they get too old, become psychotic. Bran had a suspicion that was what happened to this youkai.

 _"He generally takes the form of a hunched old man or woman,"_ Yue Hua continued.  _"He doesn't have a single form, though I suspect he should look Asian. He seems most active at night, though we have seen him during the day as well. He is also very hard to kill. Several other witches have tried to fight him in defense of the children and have died to no avail."_

Bran knew quite a few creatures who were hard to kill. He had killed some of them himself. He did not feel it was necessary to articulate this, though. It would be too overbearing, even for him, not to mention Yue Hua was strongly implying that this creature could be lethal to more than just children; children, apparently, are simply his preferred diet. White witches were not as destructive, or immediately powerful, as black witches—but that did not mean they were easy to kill either. This pangolin was very dangerous.

"I appreciate your call," he stated. "I will let my wolves know to watch out for this child-eating youkai. Is this a good number to reach you with?"

_"Yes, please. My sisters and I will be arriving shortly as well."_

"Very well."

After hanging up, Bran called his son Charles, explaining the situation to him. After finishing that, he thought for a moment, before dialing Adam Hauptman's number.

Sometimes gut instincts are better than logic. In fact, most times, it was. Given Mercy's tendency to attract trouble, Bran had a feeling this yaojing or youkai would not be leaving Washington. After James Blackwood, Bran was not taking another chance that this will somehow just pass her by.

"His target is mainly children," Bran told Adam, "but you know how she is."

Adam groaned. Bran had liked Adam even before Mercy was in the picture; he was a good man, with as much honor and integrity as his wolf would allow, coupled with good common sense and a keen mind for strategy. Since Mercy, he and Adam had their moments to bond over just how frustrating it was to protect a strong-willed, intelligent woman like Mercy when she could simultaneously be so stupidly selfless. The main trouble was that Mercy's heart was twice the size of any of theirs, despite her being ten times more vulnerable. Her history of abandonment, first by her mother, then by her foster parents, and then by Bran, left Mercy with a distinct lack of self-value. She had a tendency to believe that she was less important than anyone else, which leads her to jump to the defense of anyone she considers innocent, which excludes only the cartoonishly obvious villains.

It had taken Bran himself some time to realize this inherent flaw; he struggled to understand, initially, what it was about this coyote pup that claimed his heart so thoroughly that he would think of her safety before even his own sons, sometimes. People always point to her numerous tricks and pranks, her little acts of vengeance that were as genius and effective as they were a tribute to her sheer personality, but the truth was, Bran's love for Mercy was not the result of these petty childish acts. He did not love her so much in the beginning. Love had grown because of those gestures no one actually knows to remember: when four-year-old Mercy, kind and brave even then, had given Bran a bunch of horribly-made raw cookie dough on Valentine's day when Leah had been ignoring him out of spite. The rare occasions when Mercy did listen to him. When little Mercy had pranked the others in the pack because she perceived some insult against Bran, back before she learned to believe, as others did, that Bran could not be hurt. When Mercy made Father's day gifts for Bran as well as her own foster-father Bryan during her arts and crafts periods in grade school, because she had subconsciously thought of Bran as her father too, whatever her adult pride might say now. The way she gets along with Leah as best she could because she did not want to trouble Bran any more than he already was. The way she would challenge Bran, not because of some personal slight, but because she took issue with something Bran did when she expected better of Bran, genuinely believed that Bran was a better person than he was, and this made Bran want to actually become that person, for all that her defiance might offend his pride.

He loved Mercy because Mercy was clever and brave and yet so,  _so_ good.

It was hard to love someone who was that good.

 _"I'll have my security team track any old hunched men or women that comes through her garage,"_ Adam said dryly, and added,  _"particularly if they're Asian."_

"Charles will send you the dossiers on the Yue sisters," Bran told him. "If they come across her as well, that might mean this youkai is in the vicinity. Washington is big enough, and Seattle is far enough, that he may just pass you by. It is also possible that he might not remain in the state at all."

 _"Possibly,"_ Adam's voice somehow became even dryer; they both knew that with Mercy, one did not depend on trouble avoiding  _her_.  _"I'll tell the pack to watch out for any loose pangolins as well. That, I suspect, should be easy enough to spot."_

"I doubt he's that stupid." One never knows with the older creatures, though, and this youkai might be older than even what Yue Hua suspected. "I would also…try to keep Mercy out of it unless you really can't."

There was no right or wrong way to go about Mercy. She generally did better with more information than less, but she also got into trouble with more information than less. Bran usually preferred the whole truth, but Eastern entities had an odd knack for going where people might be thinking of them. If Mercy was aware of the pangolin, he might find his way to her just because of that.

It was probably bad enough that Bran and Adam's pack will be sniffing for his scent, but Bran was also serious about his offer when he said to Yue Hua that the wolves would want to help.

 _"We'll see how far that goes,"_ Adam replied unhappily.  _"She's pack, and very good at finding out secrets. Doubt we can keep her out of this for too long. If anything, she might subdue this pangolin before any of us even know what happened."_

Very likely correct.

"The ultimate goal is to make sure she isn't hurt in the process, whatever that may be," said Bran. "She's resourceful, and fortune favors her, but that only lasts so long. Good luck."


End file.
